Hi all,

I've just done a major trawl of the forum posts to check for electronic dictionary recommendations, but a lot of the info was a little out-of-date.

I'm looking for an electronic dictionary, the regular kind. I've tried the DS version and it's great, but boots up way too slowly.

From what I've read in various places on the web, I'm leaning towards the Canon Wordtank or maybe a Casio.

This post (http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...9#pid24539) recommends the Casio GW-6900/6800. Does anyone know what the new equivalent is? Or which of the current Canon Wordtanks are good?

Feature-wise, I'm looking for the same things anyone would, I think - stylus for character recognition, good radical / component search in case my writing of a character is terrible, search ability to save words to a list and recall (maybe review?) them, good dictionaries for E <-> J and J <-> J, ability to search for words based on a component kanji; that kind of thing. :-)

Any advice or recommendations appreciated.

Thanks!

Casio releases new dictionaries every year so that they can charge lots of money for them. The 6900 from several years ago is definitely worth the savings for the "improvements" on the new ones.

The best reviews I've found on dictionaries were all on the white rabbit press website.

Canon Wordtank G55

Edit: There is no stylus but I found writing characters in that small little area is more of a pain than a benefit on other dictionaries.

Well I need to put a good word for my dictionary, the Casio Dataplus 3 XD-GW9600 (I believe is the full version). It has an incredible amount of dictionaries in it with very many entries. It also has the ability to load more dictionaries onto it.

It has the kanji recognition pad, plus a stylus, so you can write kanji in.

Also, I just recently "acquired" the Harry Potter novels (in Japanese) in text form. I've then been able to load these novels right onto my dictionary, where I can read the full text, using the super jump feature to look up the words I don't know right away. VERY convenient!

Check it out!

I don't see anything to recommend a Canon over a Casio dictionary. They initially just got a good reputation among foreigners because they were the only ones that had English manuals. No one actually uses them in Japan (Casio is by far the most popular). Sharp is gaining ground with unique features like a built in rechargable battery, color screens, and oneseg. The downside is that the menus are very laggy. Seiko have excellent keyboards but as far as I know (I haven't looked at recent models) are lacking in features such as stylus input.

I rarely use my dictionary nowdays. I currently rely mostly on EPWING dictionaries loaded onto my computer and iPod touch. My denshi jisho is a kokugo-kei model though so I still pull it out for especially obscure stuff that isn't in general use dictionaries. I don't think Casio has released a new equivalent yet. I'm betting it didn't sell well since the main market for these is for students of a foreign language (mine has minimal bilingual content).

Here's the kakaku.com link to 電子辞書, so you can see all of them:
http://kakaku.com/kaden/ic-dictionary/

And here's the page I use if I'm searching for specific specs, like a stylus pad, or something released in the last few months. It lists the dictionaries in each model, which is very handy if you're picky:
http://kakaku.com/specsearch/2075/

I've got a Sharp Papyrus PW-AT760 from 2007, and yeah, the menus are laggy. The main reason I got it at the time was because I was already familiar with Sharp's 電子辞書, so there was less of a learning curve. My Japanese was just coming back from the dead at the time, so I wasn't in the mood for a learning curve. (And I was trying to cope with being there.)

That said, my next purchase will probably be a Casio as well. Maybe. I'm not going to buy one unless I get a hands-on first.

And how is the drawing area tiny? It's freakin' huge on my Sharp. I could fit a 四字熟語 in my drawing area... 2 on the right, 2 on the left. Granted, it won't let me do that, but there's plenty of real estate.

Now, using the stylus that comes with it can make things more difficult.

I found having a full-sized stylus pen made all the difference. I got a free 3-way pen with my Papyrus (it has a ball point pen, mechanical pencil, and a stylus tip all built in). That alone makes using the stylus area a lot more natural than using those tiny little pens they come with. It's like using a real pencil vs. those tiny little golf course pencils.

Casio does make some great models, but honestly since I bought an iPod Touch my Casio has just been collecting dust. The iPod is more convenient, and the "green goddess" is available to download as well. The one thing I do miss is the 'jump' feature, but the new versions of the iPod Touch dictionaries are adding that as well. Not to mention that the normal dictionaries for iPod will give you readings for the words, something which the electronic dictionaries will not (I think this is great for native English speakers).

Plus, the iPod Touch is half the cost of my Casio

I haven't updated my iPhone in about 6-8 months, so I was wondering-- have they added any new input methods for Japanese? I know they have the Chinese input method where you can draw characters, but do they have one for Japanese as well? All I can find are the QWERTY keyboard and the Kana keitai-style layout. If there was a way for me to draw kanji on my iPhone, then I'd probably ditch my Sharp, too. (Or can you just use the Chinese input method?)

Thanks to everyone for the great feedback.

I'm still pondering, but will hopefully come to a conclusion soon.

@Aijin - It sounds like you have a setup you're really happy with on your iPod Touch. Could you give us more info on the apps you've downloaded, whether your iPod is "jailbroken", which input methods you use etc?

Thanks again! :-)